Orbit

Virgin Galactic — the space company — is going public

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 by Snacks

🚀🚀🚀🚀... Sir Richard Branson wants to be your interstellar concierge — his space travel startup Virgin Galactic is going public. Technically it's not an IPO — a public company called Social Capital Hedosophia already exists and will merge with VG (the name Virgin Galactic will stay when the deal closes this year). It's the 1st time Earth-bound humans will be able to own stock in a space exploration company.

Three very rich men are racing to space... But they're not all the same. The big difference is the cargo.

  • SpaceX = "FedEx for space": Elon Musk's space company sends rockets skyward, usually carrying satellites and space equipment for NASA and other space agencies.
  • Blue Origin = "Uber for space": Jeff Bezos' company plans to shuttle people out to space, and eventually bring natural resources from other planets back.
  • Virgin Galactic = "JetBlue for space": Unlike Jeff and Elon's rockets, which shoot straight up, Richard's is more airplane-ish, taking off and flying to an altitude of 50 miles. It's had two successful flights and plans to take tourists up soon.
THE TAKEAWAY

Virgin Galactic's following Tesla's growth strategy... Tesla and VG both started by catering to the ultra wealthy, eventually hoping to lower costs and become mainstream. Virgin Galactic's also shockingly bullish, thinking it'll become profitable by 2021 as it collects $300K/flight from thrill-seeking millionaires who want to mid-orbit for the 'gram.

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